Mining

Adriatic Metals gets green light to expand drilling activities at Rupice

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By Lauren Barrett - 
Adriatic Metals ASX ADT exploration permit Rupice Northern extension Bosnia

The award of an exploration permit over the expanded Rupice concession area will enable additional drilling to take place.

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UK-based explorer Adriatic Metals (ASX: ADT) has declared it will soon kick-off drilling activity in the northern boundary of its Rupice zinc, lead, silver, gold, copper and barium deposit within the Vareš project in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

While the company is already drilling the south-east extension, Adriatic said the decision to commence drilling over the northern boundary a Rupice followed the award of an exploration permit over the expanded concession area.

The approved exploration permit also covers the concession expansion at the Veovaca deposit and allows Adriatic to undertake ground disturbing exploration over the entirety of the base metal prospects of Orti, Seleste and Mekuse.

At present, a rig is completing a round of infill drilling at Veovaca, aimed at incorporating additional data into an updated resource estimate.

Once the Veovaca drilling is complete, Adriatic will transfer the rig back to Rupice.

The latest permit approval follows on from the Vareš Municipal Council granting a concession expansion of Rupice and the nearby advanced Veovaca deposit last year.

Full steam ahead

A campaign of drilling to immediately test Rupice’s northern plunge extension is now underway.

Importantly, Adriatic said the concession extension area included key targets where additional drilling could identify extensions to the known high-grade mineralisation.

In addition, the company will use modern exploration techniques for the first time since the 1960s to follow up encouraging historical exploration undertaken at Siroki-Radakovac, Ceo-Sutjeska, Kraljeva, Kraljeva Jama and Zakruzje, which yielded positive results from trenching.

Adriatic chief executive officer Geraint Harris said the company had worked hard to prepare for this exciting upcoming exploration program.

“The receipt of the federal exploration permit will allow us to complete the work we started in 2018 at Rupice North, in addition to allowing us to conduct far more detailed exploration at Brestic Jurasevac, Borovica and the other high priority exploration targets within our expanded concession,” he said.

Field work has already produced a string of encouraging results at Rupice, with the company recently delivering the thickest and highest-grade intercepts at the deposit to date.

Alongside drilling, Adriatic is moving forward with metallurgical, geotechnical and hydrogeological studies at Rupice, the results, of which, will feed into project milestones such as a scoping study, an exploitation permit application and a feasibility study.

Adriatic’s shares fell 1.2% to $0.765 in morning trade.